Mobile devices are in common usage, many featuring powerful processors, larger and more colorful displays, and wireless networking capabilities. Despite these advances in mobile technology, mobile devices typically have greater limitations on memory capacity, data storage capacity, central processing unit (CPU) capacity, and networkability than workstation computers. Given the versatility of mobile devices, it is helpful to implement a means by which these mobile devices can interact with servers to synchronize data and deliver email communications in the context of potentially intermittent, unreliable, occasionally-connected, or temporarily-unavailable networking capabilities.
As wireless networks mature and evolve, mobile devices are moving from being occasionally-connected to having near-constant network connectivity. As a function of increasing wireless network coverage and bandwidth, applications running on mobile client devices increasingly rely upon data synchronization with back end servers such as email servers. Current techniques for synchronizing data and email for mobile devices often stage data to be synchronized outside of corporate and organizational networks and firewall servers, which creates a potential security risk.
Interaction using data sets exchanged between mobile devices and central servers often occurs in the context of exchanges of email, email events (including, but not limited to, indications that email messages have been read, forwarded, received, and deleted), PIM events (including, but not limited to, reminders, meeting invitations, meeting requests, task lists, and calendar appointments), application data, business process tasks, and information stored in databases. Mobile devices often retain a subset of some of email messages, email events, PIM events, and data found in enterprise databases in a local data store or database for local access on the device while the device is not connected to a wireless network. Mobile devices also retain local email archives, PIM data stores, application data, application rendering components, application execution logic, and Input/Output (I/O) parameters needed to run applications and perform business processes. Given the resource limitations of mobile devices, it inefficient to store an up to date copy of enterprise applications, PIM data stores, or databases. As mobile devices run a variety of operating systems, software suites, and programming frameworks; data, application, business process, and email synchronization needs to be platform independent.
Some current data and communications synchronization methods are synchronous and require that the mobile device being synchronized stay online and connected to a network during the entire synchronization process in order to provide results and acknowledgment to a server. Current ‘store and forward’ and ‘push-pull’ mobile communications synchronization methods are often symmetrical whereby both the mobile client device and the email server access a copy of a database (or a subset of a database) that is staged in an intermediate, mutually accessible location. Due to the fact that mobile devices are typically remote from the back end servers they synchronize with, synchronization data must often be staged on a third system that mobile devices and the back end servers can readily access. To facilitate accessibility from roaming mobile devices, data to be synchronized is often staged outside of an organizational or corporate firewall, thus exposing proprietary and confidential data to security risks. In typical store and forward synchronization systems, data to be synchronized is sent from a ‘source’ device or system to an intermediate server or node where it is stored until it is subsequently forwarded to the ‘target’ destination system. In these store and forward systems, the intermediate server is accessed symmetrically by the source and destination systems. Store and forward and push-pull data synchronization techniques also necessitate large amounts of network traffic in order to stage data to be synchronized on an intermediate server before it is ultimately forwarded or pushed to its destination system.
Current mobile data and email synchronization techniques often result in longer data delivery times than is desired and typically require that a mobile device's General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) be on and transmitting during the entire duration of a synchronization session with a server. Most current synchronization methods require large amounts of CPU and memory resources on mobile devices in addition to requiring that mobile devices GPRS services are running during synchronization, the combination of which results in rapid consumption of mobile device battery resources.
Current email and data synchronization methods do not provide for email-driven business process and do not enable actionable-responses on servers that complete business processes and application workflow operations based upon operations performed on mobile devices. While current methods may perform synchronization of data updated by an application, they do not include a delivery mechanism for applications or business process events that deliver these items to mobile devices. Although current methods include mobile services that use e-mail for notifications and alerting, these services are limited to sending e-mail to mobile devices that request additional user input for business process completion. Current systems and methods use email solely as a delivery mechanism for business-process events and lack a way for users of mobile devices to provide actionable-responses needed in order to complete business processes.
Current application and PIM event synchronization methods may replicate events by replicating the related data objects or records, but replication often consumes more resources than re-creating events in order to achieve synchronization. Current Event synchronization techniques can consume large amounts of computing resources and result in relatively slow execution times because they synchronize Events by comparing and reconciling changed database records associated with the Events. PIM (i.e., calendar, task, appointment data) and email synchronization is normally achieved by periodically detecting changes at the record level and transferring changes from a source system to a target system. Current methods compare one or more key fields, such as primary or foreign keys, in database records within multiple databases to be synchronized, which can require large amounts of computing resources and time in order to synchronize frequently-changing Events.
Accordingly, what is desired is a means of offering quicker delivery of email, email events, PIM events, business process events, application events and application data to mobile devices that also reduces network traffic and increases mobile device battery life. What is further is desired are methods, systems, and computer program products for improving synchronization of data objects such as email messages, applications, database records, and calendar entries/events between mobile devices and servers without staging the data objects outside of an organization's firewall servers.
What is also desired is a means of efficiently, securely, and reliably synchronizing email messages, applications, application events, PIM events such as calendar entries, email events, and other data objects between a plurality of mobile devices and servers without having to stage updated data on an intermediate servers. What is further desired are methods, systems, and computer program products that synchronize data objects and communications between mobile devices and servers in an asynchronous and symmetrical manner without requiring mobile devices to be online during synchronization and without storing data objects to be synchronized on an intermediate server.